Competency-Based Teacher Training Reform to Facilitate ICT-Pedagogy Integration

UNESCO Bangkok provides technical assistance to Member States to implement competency-based teacher training reforms to facilitate ICT-pedagogy integration to align and coordinate between national ICT in education policy and teacher development. Project activities are generously supported by the Korean Funds-in-Trust (KFIT), Japan Funds-in-Trust (JFIT), and CapED Programme.

ICT Competency Standards for Teachers Development

Guidance is provided to Member States for developing ICT Competency Standards for Teachers (ICT-CST), which determine the required ICT competencies for teachers that are clearly aligned with their policy vision, goals, and ICT in Education Master Plans. These national standards serve as the basis in the development of a comprehensive roadmap for promoting competency-based teacher ICT training programmes. Based on the ICT-CST developed with Member States, UNESCO provides further support to develop resources for:

• Incorporating Competency Standards into the Teacher training/curriculum
• Evaluating teachers’ growth and professional needs through Assessment & recognition
• Monitoring and evaluating the reach, applicability, effectiveness and impact of the standards

Research and resources for Competency-based teacher development and training programmes

The following resources provide guidance to countries on the development and implementation of ICT Competency Standards for Teacher:

• Diverse Approaches to Developing and Implementing Competency-based ICT Training for Teachers: A Case Study vol 1 which features exemplary country cases of ICT-CST including the experiences of three pilot countries (Nepal, Philippines, and Uzbekistan).
• Online Guideline for Competency-based Teacher Training Reform to Facilitate ICT-Pedagogy Integration that consists of a package of generic tools/instruments, step-by-step guidance in developing and operationalizing the national ICT competency standards for teachers, training modules on development processes and mechanisms, and model country cases that will serve as valuable references for other governments and institutions in replicating and adapting the process in their own context.

Progress and achievements made by project countries (as of July 2021)

KFIT “Enhancing National Capacity to Foster Digital Citizenship Education in Asia Pacific” Project

• Uzbekistan developed and endorsed the national ICT Competency Requirements for Teachers (ICT-CRT) in 2016. Based on that, the teacher training curriculum was revised and modules developed. In 2018, Uzbekistan completed its draft Guidelines on ICT Competency Requirements for Teacher Assessment and conducted ToT.
• Philippines developed an ICT stream that was anchored on the developed national ICT Competency Standards for Teachers, which formed a pre-service teacher education programme with two technology courses (TTL1 and TTL2). In 2018, two national workshops for core trainers were held based on the pre-service TTL curriculum.
• Nepal developed and endorsed the national ICT competency standards for teachers in 2016, which provided the direction to drafting the syllabi for both the Basic and Proficient levels. In 2019, a special training workshop on Facilitating Student-Centered Learning through ICT allowed participants to explore ICT tools and resources that Nepali teachers can use to enhance students' learning experiences. This was followed by a national module development workshop which led to Basic- and Proficient-level draft modules.
• Myanmar developed ICT-CST within the overall Teacher Competency Standards Framework (TCSF) in 2017, which were then validated and endorsed in 2020. In 2019, Myanmar also developed a 4-year ICT Syllabus of Education Colleges, Year 1 student teacher Textbook and Teacher Educator Guide, and conducted ToT for EC ICT Teacher Educators on ICT-pedagogy integration. In 2020, Myanmar began the drafting of the Guidelines on ICT-CST based Teacher Assessment.
• Mongolia developed and endorsed its ICT-CST in 2020, serving as the basis for draft pre- and in-service teacher training course syllabi and an initial set of modules and recommendations.
• Kyrgyzstan developed and endorsed its first ICT-CST in 2021, in line with the national education and ICT goals and visions. These were then incorporated into the teacher education and training programmes.

JFIT “ICT to Facilitate SDG4 in South Asia” Project

• Bhutan developed and endorsed their ICT-CST within the overall Bhutan Professional Standards for Teaches (BPST) in 2019. These served as the basis for developing the draft 5-day teacher training framework for the planned National Based In-Service Programme on integrating ICT in pedagogy, and corresponding teacher training modules. In 2021, Bhutan drafted the ICT-CST implementation guideline.
• Maldives developed the draft ICT-CST embedded within the general professional standards for teachers in 2019, and in line with the Education Sector Plan and Digital School Strategy. The draft ICT-CST have been integrated within the teacher education and training curricula in 2020.

CapED “Transforming Teachers’ Capacities in ICT in Education in Lao PDR” Project

• Lao PDR has been developing the national ICT-CST across 3 proficiency levels in 2021.

Contact Information

ict.bgk(at)unesco.org